Mike Witty - Trustee
I am a keen bird-watcher and wildlife enthusiast from Yorkshire who has lived in East Kent for over 40 years. I worked at Pfizer for 30 years, rising to senior positions in R&D, and since my early retirement 14 years ago, I have been supporting not-for-profit charities working in neglected tropical disease drug R&D. I was a founder and Board chairman of GALVmed (www.galvmed.org working in livestock diseases) for 6 years and this year finish my 6-year term as Chairman of the Medicines for Malaria Venture Expert Scientific Advisory Committee (MMV.org). This has given me lots of opportunities to travel to far-flung countries and combine my work trips with my hobbies of birding, walking, sight-seeing and other outside activities as well as using my skills to benefit society.
Due to work pressures, in the past I have only been able to participate in SBBOT activities infrequently but more recently I have joined in the SBBOT Thursday evenings and walks until Covid stopped face-to-face contact. For the last year, I have been a volunteer on the Observatory shop/reception every Friday morning.
I will be finally dropping the majority of my consultancy work at the end of this year and so I will have more time to give to other activities in my retirement. I have many general skills and experience which may benefit the organisation, I know the challenges of running a charity and the importance of constantly seeking funding for new projects and core infrastructure. I welcome the opportunity to become a Trustee and, whilst enthusiastic and willing, I realise that I have still much to learn about the day-to-day running of SBBOT.